The Dutch seem to complain about the Danish Eurovision Song Contest winner “Only teardrop” reminding them of “I surrender” song by Dutch group “K-otic“. It is close, but probably not sufficiently close to run into copyright problems.

I have tried to listen off the song by ear and entered it into Lilypond (my second attempt with that program). Anna Speller is according to Wikipedia singer in K-otic but I am actually not sure it is her that is the singer of the particular song. The controversial issue must be around the a-b-a-g-e progression in chorus of both songs (there is a Youtuber that claims a chord progression similarity). The two songs are in the same key.

It is around five notes that are similar. The tin whistle of “Only teardrops” has several grace notes that I did not attempt to show. The e-g lead-in in “I surrender” is not present in “Only teardrops. Instead the lead-in punches several times at the a and has an extra note for the extra word compared to “I surrender”.

The text of “I surrender” with “to the beating of my heart” is standard pop lyrics. An Internet search on the phrase will show a number of other songs: “Synching up to the beating of my heart”, “My fingers keep on clicking to the beating of my heart”, “That there’s more to life than listening to the beating of my heart”, …

Interestingly, the “I surrender” has a bagpipe-like sound in the introduction giving it a brief celtic flavor like the “Only teardrops” with its drums and tin whistle.

Update 2013-06-16:

Ok, so apparently I am not that precise a listener in my first attempt, so here is an update. I will try with a new transcription of the “Only Teardrops” song. Some of the stanzas have a lead-in, “Tell me”, which mimicks the Dutch song. I have also put the grace note on the tin whistle notes. Now the Danish winner song is even closer to the Dutch.